Day 4-Animal Kingdom

Thank you to all who made comments yesterday. As much as you like to read my posts, is how much I like to read your comments. Otherwise, it's like a one way conversation! And that's no fun! Anyway...
Day four... we hit up Animal Kingdom. Daddy wasn't all that excited about going. But I remembered it being pretty cool. Ellie had to wear her hair extensions the day AFTER Bippidy Boppidy Boutique, too.
It's kind of funny how EVERYTHING at Disney is an adventure! Even travelling from the parking lot to the parks. Sometimes it was on a tram. Sometimes a monorail. The kids liked those like they were rides themselves. I guess they actually were.
A lot of time, we had to divide and conquer. Gabs, as sweet as she is , is also my titty baby. She says, "You hurt my feelings" quite often. And she walks at a SNAIL'S PACE!!
When we say, "Coooomme on, Gabbi!" Or, "OK, we are gonna leave you" (don't hate... you've all done it), she stands and pouts. She wanted me to carry her ALL the time.
And you have to admit, that is a pretty pitiful face!
She will just stand until we come back and get her. That "we're gonna go on in without you" really doesn't phase her.
And so, I picked her up and we headed into the Rainforest Cafe.
She perked up a bit in there. It's never a good sign when we are having "moods" before we ever even enter the park.
I am one to forever be grateful to the restaurants who provide coloring pages for the food wait.

We finished up in there, and the first animals we saw were these. We stayed there watching this show for several minutes. This daddy (?? I think) bird would move and perfect the nest that the mama was sitting on (on eggs... we later saw them).
Todd kept saying, COME ON, but the girls and I were intrigued by their dance of perfecting the nest and swapping places to keep the eggs warm.
We were within distance to them to actually touch them.

Eventually, dad won and we moved along. The Tree (I really don't know what it is called... The Tree of Life maybe?!) is the central monument in the park.
It's amazing how much work went into carving all those animals into that tree!!
First up, 3-D movie, "It's a Bug's Life">.

WHO is that 4 year old in fake hair extensions, a denim mini skirt and wedges?? Oh, wait, she has a sweet Cinderella tee shirt on! Must be a super sweet girl after all!
Outside the show, there were live insects for us to look at and photo prop ops too!!

As intrigues as the girls and I were with the spoonbill cranes, Daddy was just TAKEN with Grapevine!
But I could kind of understand it! She moved so slowly and seductively and just slithered into the crowd. It was hard to take you eyes off of her.
Next up, my FAVORITE part of Aminal Kingdom.
We went on a "safari". Everyone piles into an open jeep and there's a guide who tells a story along the way about how we are heading into the brush to catch a poacher and to help a baby elephant get back to her mama.
There were giraffes, elephants, rhinos, lions, cheetahs, .... all kinds of animals along the way. And thennnn....
Yuck! Vultures are so gross.
Maybe my favorite part of the ride was when we approached the giraffes.
the girls perked up, because it looked like we were going to run over one. They were crossing the road.
And as we neared them, they didn't budge.
It was like we could have reached out and touched them!
ANd they are really beautiful animals.
I think all of us enjoyed the safari.
And who doesn't like a herd of elephants, especially when a BABY elephant is in the mix.
I think they said she was 4 months old.

Here we got a glimpse of the KING of the Jungle. I wondered how they keep some of these animals from charging the tour bus.
Like THIS sucker!! They said rhinos can run 35 miles per hour. WHO knew?!

Can you imagine this thing charging you at 35 mph?
Last stop 0f the day, Flights of Wonder. An interactive bird show. Can I say , birds kinda gross me out. They just seem so dirty. sorry to you bird lovers. I'm just sayin'.
One of the few things that Ellie recalls from the whole week long trip, if someone asks her what was her favorite thing about Disney (besides getting to show her belly in her two piece princess costume... LORD give me strength), is this...
"That big owl pooped on that lady's arm".

Yep. All that money spent was well worth it for her to remember that!

The bird show was an open arena where they let the birds swoop all over the crowd to retrieve items from the audience members, then return them to them.
We just kinda minded our own business and ate suckers!
and made ugly faces every time a camera was pointed at her.
Hey, by the way, this whole trip is documented by our new small, stick in your pocket-sized camera. So, here's the question... can you tell a difference between this and my big huge SLR camera? I really can't. In fact, sometimes I told TtheB that I thought they were BETTER. He said there's more pixels in this one. SO, what do you think?
Might have to frame this one.

Bird, you'd BETTER not poop on me or my family!!

Isnt' that how disease is spread?!
Sorry Animal Kingdom. I really did have fun with you. Just not fired up about birds. Maybe I'll just skip that one next time. It was cool, and kept the audience engaged, but you know...

I think we'll do the safari a couple of times!!

MO